How EDIT Is The Tipping Point For A Better World

How can an old soap factory be a catalyst to enable citizens to create a better world, and why should you care?

Welcome to EDIT, the most ambitious, thought provoking, call-to-action-type of festival Toronto, and maybe the world, has known. It is not only the festival of the future, it is the festival FOR the future.

This is no show and tell. This is not the smarty-pants-pretentious-type of experience you dread. The very purpose of EDIT is to inspire and inform every day citizens that they too can make a difference and they too can do their part. It hits home the notion that if you bring together design, innovation and technology, the opportunities to create a difference are abundant.

Scrubber by T B A features a grid of transparent vessels, containing algae culture that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen to scrub the air clean

Citizens of all ages and backgrounds, from the four corners of the world have been flocking to this experience which began September 28 and, unfortunately, ends October 8th. The programming gives attendees the opportunity to hear from some of the most prominent global mavens who are literally changing the world. Hands-on workshops, hackathons, and kids’ days are empowering every day people that they too have the power to create the change they wish for.

Decorative Fruit is just one of the installations available for view in EDIT’s Nourish exhibit. The exhibit housed Newcomer Kitchen cooking sessions, Ikea Swedish Cooking and Culture class and Mister Jaune food experience.

This is a lesson for all of us. Design is not all about the beauty of a thing. It’s about us all understanding and believing once and for all that forward thinking design is a chance to solve some of the world’s pressing problems.

The world also needs more experiences like EDIT. Bringing the world to Toronto and creating a blank canvas for a collective to make change matters. It speaks to a tipping point this city finds itself in. Do we want to be a city of observers or do we want to be an epicentre of doers that the world looks to? Going further, do we want to be a country and world that sits back or gets up and does something?

“We are not going to get out of this mess if we wait for someone else to do it. We have to all be empowered to be part of the solution. We want people to leave inspired to make change big or small,” says Shauna Levy, President & CEO, Design Exchange/EDIT

In the city, we are constantly berated with comments like, “I saw this in _____, why doesn’t Toronto have this? We should be doing more of what is being done in ____.” EDIT is the opportunity for us to design our futures. EDIT is a road map for the world we want.